Walkinshaw Happy as Arrows Make a Point

Tears flowed in the Arrows team garage on Sunday after German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored a point in an action-packed Spanish Grand Prix.

The cash-strapped team failed to finish in the top six in the first four races of this season and the crucial point secured a financial bonus by putting them on the Championship scoreboard.

Team principal Tom Walkinshaw was filled with emotion after Frentzen crossed the line in sixth place to claim the first points finish for the Leafield-based team since Jos Verstappen, of the Netherlands finished sixth in the Austrian Grand Prix 17 races ago.

"Now you see why we invested in Heinz-Harald Frentzen," said Walkinshaw. "The car has been good all weekend, especially in race trim, and I want to thank the team as they have all worked extremely hard for the last six weeks.

"It is satisfying racing with Renault and Sauber and now we need to keep on pushing to beat them."

Engine Improvements

Arrows scored only one point last season, and had a difficult start to the year when they were disqualified at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

In the second race of the year, in Malaysia, Frentzen finished in 11th place but that remained the only time the team had reached the end of a race as mechanical and engine problems hampered their progress.

A push from new engine suppliers Cosworth, however, saw an improvement in power for the Barcelona weekend as both Frentzen and his Brazilian teammate Enrique Bernoldi, who failed to finish the Barcelona race, used the new engine in qualifying.

"The next step is to get the same engine upgrade for the race that we had for qualifying," Walkinshaw added.

Frentzen Ecstatic

For Frentzen, the result was sweet. Sacked from Jordan just before his home Grand Prix last year, the former Formula One winner took great delight in securing his first point since the San Marino Grand Prix in 2001.

The German driver was carried aloft by mechanics from his new team, who interrupted a television interview outside Frentzen's former employers' garage after the race.

And after battling up at the front of the field, Frentzen admitted: "That was great! The team has done a superb job all weekend so they thoroughly deserve this point.

"I am confident this car has the potential to be even better, we just need to work on it and we have shown all weekend that we can be competitive.

"I think we are on an upward curve now, the pressure to score a point is off and we are very much on to score even more."